The Middle East crisis deepened last night as a war of words between Israeli and Arab leaders developed alongside the continuing street violence on the West Bank and in Gaza which resulted in four more deaths.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, responded to a communique from the Arab League summit in Cairo by declaring that his country would reject what he called "the language of threats".
But in an implied rebuke to Mr Barak, the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat, said anyone blocking his people's path to an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital could "go to hell".
Another four Palestinians were killed yesterday in clashes with Israeli soldiers, bringing the number of deaths since Friday alone to 18. As has become the norm, yesterday's victims included two teenagers, Wael Mohammad Imad (14), and an as yet unidentified 17-year-old youth.
The 14-year-old was reported to have been shot in the head during a confrontation between Palestinian youths and Israeli soldiers at the Erez crossing, the main link between the Gaza Strip and Israel, hospital sources said. The 17-year-old died in a hospital after he was hit in the chest in a confrontation with soldiers guarding the Kfar Darom settlement, in the south of the Gaza Strip. The other two victims, who were in their 20s, died in clashes near Hebron.
Meanwhile, Mr Barak told his weekly cabinet meeting that Israel would have to take a "timeout" to reassess the peace process in the light of recent events.
The efforts of moderate Arab leaders such as the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, to ensure a measured response by the two-day emergency summit in Cairo to the latest violence were largely successful but there were concerns that Arab governments might be out of touch with the mood of their people.
The summit communique released yesterday was seen as strong on rhetoric but short on action. Israel's response to the Palestinian protests was condemned and the United Nations was urged to set up a war crimes tribunal. The UN was also asked to send a peacekeeping force to the latest trouble-spots and $1 billion in aid is to be raised for the Palestinians. There will also be some low-key diplomatic sanctions against Israel.
Accusing the Israelis of carrying out a massacre, the communique said: "Arab states will prosecute according to international law those who caused these barbaric practices and demand that the Security Council form a special international criminal court to try Israeli war criminals."
The comparatively restrained tone of the summit was too much for the Libyans, who walked out in protest.
Nevertheless, Mr Barak's response to the communique was sharp and he accused the Arab leaders of covertly encouraging the Palestinian protesters: "Israel totally rejects the language of threats that came out of the summit and condemns the call, folded into the decisions, for continued violence."
On his return to Gaza after the summit, Mr Arafat responded equally sharply by commenting that the Palestinian people were continuing on the road to Jerusalem, as the capital of their future state. "To accept it, or not to accept it - let him go to hell," he said, without mentioning Mr Barak by name.
Amnesty International said it was concerned that in policing demonstrations since the end of last month, the Israeli security forces had repeatedly made excessive use of lethal force in circumstances in which neither their lives nor the lives of others were in imminent danger.